The Denver Post

U.S. food banks struggle to feed hungry

Container

- By Janie Har

OAKLAND, CALIF.» U.S. food banks dealing with increased demand from families sidelined by the pandemic now face a new challenge — surging food prices and supply chain issues walloping the nation.

The higher costs and limited availabili­ty mean some families may get smaller servings or substituti­ons for staples such as peanut butter, which some food banks are buying for nearly double what it cost two years ago.

As the holidays approach, some food banks worry they won’t have enough stuffing and cranberry sauce for Thanksgivi­ng and Christmas.

“What happens when food prices go up is food insecurity for those who are experienci­ng it just gets worse,” said Katie Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of Feeding America, a nonprofit organizati­on that coordinate­s the efforts of more than 200 food banks across the country.

Food banks that expanded to meet unpreceden­ted demand brought on by the pandemic won’t be able to absorb forever food costs that are two to three times what they used to be, she said.

Supply chain disruption­s, lower inventory and labor shortages have contribute­d to increased costs for charities on which tens of millions of people in the U.S. rely on for nutrition. Donated food is more expensive to move because transporta­tion costs are up, and bottleneck­s at factories and ports make it difficult to get goods of all kinds.

If a food bank has to swap out for smaller sizes of canned tuna or make substituti­ons to stretch its dollars, Fitzgerald said, it’s like adding “insult to injury” to a family reeling from uncertaint­y.

In the prohibitiv­ely expensive San Francisco Bay Area, the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland is spending an extra $60,000 a month on food.

Combined with increased demand, it is now shelling out $1 million a month to distribute 4.5 million pounds of food, said Michael Altfest, the Oakland food bank’s director of community engagement.

Prepandemi­c, it was spending a quarter of the money for 2.5 million pounds of food.

The cost of canned green beans and peaches is up nearly 9% for them, Altfest said. Canned tuna and frozen tilapia are up more than 6%, and a case of 5pound frozen chickens for holiday tables is up 13%. The price for dry oatmeal has climbed 17%.

On Wednesdays hundreds of people line up outside a church in east Oakland for its weekly food giveaway.

Shiloh Mercy House feeds about 300 families on those days, far less than the 1,100 families it was nourishing at the height of the pandemic, said Jason Bautista, the charity’s event manager.

But he’s still seeing new people every week.

“And a lot of people are just saying they can’t afford food,” he said. “I mean they have the money to buy certain things, but it’s just not stretching.”

Families also can use a community market Shiloh opened in May. Refrigerat­ors contain cartons of milk and eggs while sacks of hamburger buns and crusty baguettes sit on shelves.

Oakland resident Sonia Lujan-perez, 45, picked up chicken, celery, onions bread and potatoes — enough to supplement a Thanksgivi­ng meal for herself, 3-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son.

The state pays her to care for daughter Melanie, who has special needs, but it’s not enough with monthly rent at $2,200 and the cost of milk, citrus, spinach and chicken so high.

“That is wonderful for me because I will save a lot of money,” she said, adding that the holiday season is rough because of her children’s expectatio­ns for Christmas presents.

Many people also rely on other government aid, including the federal Supplement­al Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Kate Waters, a spokeswoma­n for the USDA, which administer­s the SNAP program, said there were no immediate plans for an emergency boost in SNAP benefits to compensate for the rising food costs.

But she said previous moves by the Biden administra­tion such as the permanent increase in SNAP benefits this year and a fresh wave of funding for food banks should help ease the burden.

In addition, Waters said, the fact that schools are open and offering free lunches and, in some cases, free breakfast, also should help.

Bryan Nichols, vice president of sales for Transnatio­nal Foods Inc., which delivers to more than 100 food banks associated with Feeding America, said canned foods from Asia — such as fruit cocktail, pears and mandarin oranges — have been stuck overseas because of a lack of shipping container space.

Issues in supply seem to be improving and prices stabilizin­g, but he expects costs to stay high after so many people got out of the shipping business during the pandemic.

“An average coming from Asia prior to COVID would cost about $4,000. Today, that same container is about $18,000,” he said.

At the Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado in Colorado Springs, CEO Lynne Telford says the cost for a truckload of peanut butter — 40,000 pounds — has soared 80% from June 2019 to $51,000 in August.

Mac and cheese is up 19% from a year ago and the wholesale cost of ground beef has increased 5% in three months.

The organizati­on is spending more money to buy food to make up for waning donations, and there’s less to choose from.

The upcoming holidays worry her. For one thing, the donation cost to buy a frozen turkey has increased from $10 to $15 per bird.

“The other thing is that we’re not getting enough holiday food, like stuffing and cranberry sauce. So we’re having to supplement with other kinds of food, which you know, makes us sad,” said Telford, whose food bank fed more than 200,000 people last year, distributi­ng 25 million pounds of food.

 ?? Justin Sullivan, Getty Images ?? A worker at the Sf-marin Food Bank moves a pallet of donated Foster Farms turkeys on Monday in San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan, Getty Images A worker at the Sf-marin Food Bank moves a pallet of donated Foster Farms turkeys on Monday in San Francisco.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States